Warning: contains spoilers for Evil Dead Rise!Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead kicked off a beloved franchise, but is Evil Dead Rise a reboot or an Evil Dead sequel? The original 1981 low-budget gorefest follows a group of five college kids as they venture into the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to vacation in a small cabin far off the beaten path. There are already sinister forces at play in the cabin and surrounding woods before they arrive. Things are only made worse when the group plays a recording of demonic incantations and reads the Sumerian "Book of the Dead" they found in the basement, inadvertently unleashing evil.
Demons with a penchant for possession, called "Deadites," quickly descend on them and nastily pick them off one by one. Though his fate appears grim at the film's very end, it's later revealed that only Ashley "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell) survives, and the final boy lives on to be the star of the now-iconic franchise. Evil Dead Rise follows that template but with a twist. In the years since the first Evil Dead movie, the series has seen more sequels, a TV show, and even popular video games. In 2013, Fede Alvarez came out with a soft reboot of the original, titled Evil Dead, which didn't feature Ash. Evil Dead Rise is another fresh take on the Evil Dead franchise, although it's more connected to Sam Raimi's original than the 2013 Evil Dead reboot.
Evil Dead Rise Is A Sequel
The next film in the universe, Evil Dead Rise, arrived in 2023 and is a sequel to the original franchise. It was clear from early reports that Rise was an Evil Dead Sequel. Early synopses included summaries like "the next chapter in the saga builds off the original trilogy, rather than the 2013 reboot, and moves the action out of the woods and into the city" (via one of the most extreme in the Evil Dead franchise, with a Deadite mother attacking her children in a city setting.
The details of Evil Dead Rise's urban setting have been known since the project was first announced. However, the confirmed Evil Dead sequel will directly follow the original trilogy rather than the reboot makes it very different. The plot follows two estranged sisters (played by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan) as they take their turn fighting off the infamous Deadites that are so eager to wreak havoc and possess humans.
Bruce Campbell's Ash Isn't In Evil Dead Rise
Bruce Campbell has made it clear that his time as Ash has run its course. On one hand, Ash (along with his chainsaw hand) has become the face of the franchise. So, for fans of earlier installments, another modern release without him in it was a bit of a loss. However, Campbell was excited about the sequel. In a statement he gave at the time of the project's official announcement, he said, "At its core, ‘Evil Dead’ is about ordinary people overcoming extraordinarily terrifying situations. I can’t wait for Alyssa and Lily to fill the blood-soaked shoes of those who have come before them and carry on that tradition.”
Even though Ash didn't appear in the Evil Dead sequel, nor was Raimi directing it, the Evil Dead veterans were behind the scenes as producers — and there were also hidden Bruce Campbell cameos in Evil Dead Rise. Evil Dead Rise arrived in theaters on April 21, 2023, and broke the recent trend of feature films from Warner Bros. immediately making their way to HBO Max. Instead, the movie received a longer theatrical run, benefiting the box office. Regardless of which characters featured in the movie and what the setting was for the demon-filled newest chapter, anything Evil Dead attracts a massive audience.
Evil Dead Rise Connections
While Ash Williams didn't appear in the Evil Dead sequel, one very familiar prop did — but with a different look. The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis was back and once again releasing deadites upon an unprepared world. However, the Necronomicon looked very different and there is a reason for that. Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin explained that he spoke to Sam Raimi about the book and mentioned a line from the third movie in Raimi's trilogy, Army of Darkness. In that movie, it was said there were three different versions of the Necronomicon.
"In one of the early meetings I had with Sam Raimi, I said, 'You know the way in Army Of Darkness, there's three [Necronomicons]? You had one, [Evil Dead 2013 director] Fede [Alvarez] had one, I'm going to take the other one.'"
This explains a few things. First, it shows that the Fede Alvarez Evil Dead movie was not a reboot, but actually took place in the same world as the Sam Raimi movies (which was proven anyway when Ash Campbell made his post-credit cameo). Now, even without an Ash cameo, this proves that this movie also takes place in the same world and audiences have now seen all three versions of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, and the different Deadites that each book conjures.
There are even more cool connections between Evil Dead Rise and the previous movies, some in story and others just Easter eggs for fans. In the recording playing on the record player that unleashes the Deadites, Bruce Campbell's voice is heard warning the people reading the spell about the book. Beth gets a moment in the new movie with a chainsaw, that should remind all Evil Dead fans about Ash's favorite weapon outside his Boomstick. While Evil Dead Rise is much more serious and gory than the originals, it still maintains a connection that should keep fans invested in the world.
